Looking for an alternative to the over-crowded and overpriced
golf in the long-established haunts of Spain and
Portugal? For those in the know, Normandy – with its
unbeatable scenery, golf, wine and food – is perfect for
that touring holiday. Best of all, it’s right on your doorstep.
Andy Marshall reports on the highlights of the region

It's early November in Normandy's Pays d'Auge, A picturesque
landscape of small towns and villages and rolling
meadows dotted with grazing cattle, russet-coloured apple
orchards and half-timbered farmsteads. The Pays d’Auge
region is known for the superior quality of its local produce –
a land where some of France’s finest cheeses, such as
Camembert, are created alongside the highly-prized local tipple,
Calvados, the fiery apple brandy that has been distilled
with typical French passion for more than four hundred years.

This western corner of France also happens to be
blessed with a selection of very fine golf courses, and for
the gourmet golfer who enjoys a tipple, the good news is
that between tee-times there’s ample opportunity to learn
about, taste and stock up on some of the fine local produce
(the latter point especially relevant to golfers who take
advantage of the many offers with Brittany Ferries to travel
in the comfort of their own car).

Our base for a brief sojourn in Normandy is the Hôtel du
Golf Barriére, a luxurious property situated in a stunningly
beautiful location on the slopes of Mount Canisy, just five
minutes from Deauville. This coastal town became fashionable
in the early 20th century after construction of a racetrack,
casino and boutique opened by designer Coco Chanel,
and down the years has glittered with international royalty,
film stars and political figures such as Winston Churchill.

Many famous guests have enjoyed the old-world charms
of the Hôtel du Golf Barriére since it opened its doors in
1929, including Errol Flynn, Harrison Ford and Yves St
Laurent (their autographed photos greet you with a smile
inside the foyer). Just opposite is the chic Le Green Bar,
where we happily sink into a couple of red velvet armchairs
and admire sketches of famous golfers on the walls – it’s
the perfect hangout to imbibe on some Normandy spirit
and discuss our golfing adventures ahead.

“We have a selection of thirty types of Calvados,”
announces Laurent Mallet, the friendly barman. “Perhaps I
can tempt you with a rare 60-year-old Camut?” Tempting,
but with at eighty euro for a shot we settle on a more
affordable 8-year-old Château du Breuil before making our
way to the hotel restaurant for a belt-loosening five-course
meal. They don’t do things in halves here at the Hôtel du
Golf Barriére – all part of the experience, you understand.

After a good night’s sleep we’re up early the next morning,
eager for our first taste of Normandy golf. And we
don’t have to go very far. Rated among France's top-20
prettiest and most established layouts, Golf Barriére de
Deauville is on the hotel’s doorstep, and you quickly appreciate why it has always been one of the places to play in
Normandy. The three loops of 9 holes are all maintained in
excellent condition year-round, with beautifully manicured
fairways and greens. The original 18 holes opened in 1929,
a lovely parkland layout with a mix of undulating fairways
and panoramic views over Deauville and Pays d’Auge country.

For a truly authentic
links experience, don’t
miss out on the chance
to
stop by at the Harry Colt designed
Golf de Granville

The course is a greater test of your accuracy than it is
power, bunkering and fairway shaping testing your course
management from tee to green. The newer nine holes were
designed in 1964 by our very own Henry Cotton, and here
you enjoy a course which has a more wooded character.

For a short break there is ample golf at Hôtel du Golf
Barriére to keep you occupied, but those in search of further
golfing adventure only need travel 15kms south of Deauville
to find another excellent 27 holes at Pont L'Évêque, famous
for the Normandy cheese of the same name.

We would certainly recommend you check it out. Golf
Barriére de Saint-Julien’s main 18-hole layout – Le Vallon – is
hilly in places and winds through lush Normandy pastureland.
The higher part of the course invites you to open your shoulders
with the driver, elsewhere you find yourself once again
double-checking the course planner to plot a safe route to the
green. Water comes in to play several times on the lower part
of the course, notably at the 9th and the 18th, where the
approach shot is played over water to reach heavily bunkered
and undulating greens, the marvellous chateau-style clubhouse
a glorious backdrop. (Make sure you allow ample time
for lunch before taking on the 9-hole Le Bocage course – the
club restaurant serves up might fine French cuisine).

Completing a trio of 27-hole courses within our base at
Deauville is Golf Amirauté, a championship-standard
course designed by Bill Baker. It’s a modern layout featuring
huge fairways, large greens, plenty of water (over 36
acres of lakes!) and several rather novel hazards in the
shapely form of assorted contemporary sculptures. The
aptly named ‘Art Course’ is mostly flat, so it can easily be
walked, though carts are readily available (as we found to
be the case at all of the courses we visited). There’s also the
floodlit 9-hole ‘Star Course’ if you fancy indulging in the
experience of golfing at night.

Unmistakable Normandy Spirit

As a break from golf, a guided tour of Manoir d’Apreval
comes highly recommended. This is a family-owned estate
in the coastal village of Pennedepie (located 10 km east of
Deauville) famous for a line of fine Calvados and cider.
“From mid-September to mid-December we hand-pick the
apples and then press them into a juice that ends up inside
these tanks,” explains manager Agathe Letellier as we step
inside the fermentation house. “If you listen carefully, you
can hear a hissing sound. That’s the apple juice naturally
fermenting into a dry cider inside the tanks.”

She explains that after one to six months, the cider is
distilled twice to separate the alcohol and eventually produce
a colourless and very strong spirit of around 70 per
cent alcohol. Double distillation – in addition to the apples
originating in the Pays d’ Auge region – are requirements
for Calvados to achieve the AOC label (Appellation
d’Origine Contrôlée), the highest honour that can be
bestowed on a French product.

Continuing our tour, we are led to a cellar, where the liquid
gold is aged in oak casks for a minimum of two years,
by which time it’s gained a rich amber hue (due to the tannin
in the wood) that darkens as the Calvados ages. Usually
the maturation goes on for several years, and each year the
Calvados loses a little volume and alcohol content through
evaporation until it drops to between 40 and 45 per cent,
and this is known as the ‘Angel’s Share’. The longer the
Calvados is aged, the smoother the taste. “Put a dab on your
wrist and just take in the aroma,” prompts Agathe, demonstrating the complexities of Apreval’s Calvados X0 with its
sweet aromas of wood and ripe fruit. “There’s a richness in
the flavour and finish that’s unique to aged Calvados.”

Once he deems it to be mature, the cellar master then
blends Calvados from different years, choosing each for its
complimentary qualities. We learn that it’s a traditional custom
at meal times for Normans to down a small glass of
Calvados – to help re-awaken the appetite between dishes,
we’re told. Known as the ‘Norman Hole’ or Trou Normand,
it’s a rather appropriate term on a golf trip.

As she concludes the tour, Agathe announces our opportunity
to taste some of the produce inside the estate shop –
and a chance to purchase other apple-based drinks such as
robust ciders and the refreshing aperitif pommeau (a two thirds
cider/one-third Calvados mix) that makes a great
19th hole tipple.

Another Calvados distillery worth visiting is the Château
du Breuil (which you’ll find inland from Deauville). Listed as
an historical monument, this attractive slate-roofed château
was built in the 16th and 17th centuries, and has been
entirely restored by its new owners who have been distilling
highly respected spirits for three generations now.

A Normandy cheese is considered the perfect partner for
a Calvados or cider, with much of it being produced around
the small towns of Livarot, Pont l'Évêque and Camembert.
With its golden-yellow centre and creamy-white rind, the
circular Camembert is the quintessential Normandy cheese
and known the world over. Its origins are relatively young
in cheese-making terms and Marie Harel, a farmer’s wife,
invented it during the time of the French Revolution and
sold her cheese in the market of Vimoutiers.

Two lesser-known and much older cheeses are Pont
l'Évêque, an uncooked, unpressed cow’s milk cheese that is
square in shape, and Livarot, an ancient and noble cheese
that dates back more than 700 years, originating with the
monks. Other Normandy cheeses include Pavé d'Auge, a
semi-soft, creamy cheese with a reddish rind, so called
because it looks like the square cobblestones (pave) you
still see in old marketplaces in France, and the heart shaped
Neufchâtel, a soft, slightly crumbly, mould-ripened
cheese.

With golf off the menu for the afternoon, we decide on a
visit to Fromagerie Graindorge, a cheese producer in Livarot
that offers free tours and tastings. Inside is a unique collection of old black-and-white photos, cheese-making implements,
milk churns, cheese moulds and a replica of the
world’s largest Livarot cheese. Measuring around one metre
in diameter, it was made from 1165 litres of milk (the
equivalent of 250 standard size Livarot cheeses), and
shared with all the residents of the town on a special fiesta
day in 2008.

There’s ample opportunity to observe the various stages of
making the Livarot and Pont l'Évêque cheeses – working the
curd, salting, drying, and washing the rind. Before leaving, it’s
mandatory to sample some of the produce, beautifully displayed
in colourful boxes inside the Graindorge shop. Keep an
eye out for Le Grain d'Orge with Calvados – a delicious cheese
that combines two of region’s most celebrated products.

Normandy Landings & Links

West of Deauville is Golf Omaha Beach, a 36-hole golf complex
located on the coast at Port-en-Bessin, only a few kilometres
from the D-Day Landing Beaches of 1944, and the
American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer where Stephen
Spielberg filmed scenes for the movie Saving Private Ryan
among the 10,000 white crosses.

Omaha Beach
boasts a 36-hole
complex located on
the coast at Port-en-
Bessin,
just a few
kilometres from the
site of the D-Day
Landings

The 1985 design of the prime two loops, Bocage
(Hedgerow) and La Mer (Sea) are simple and unfussy with
the emphasis on steady driving. The Bocage nine is set in
an apple orchard and the name stands for the earth and
stone buttressed hedges, which criss-cross the interior rural
landscape – natural defence lines which made life a nightmare
for invading forces.

Each of the nine holes on Le Mer loop closest to the sea,
are named after famous World War II war heroes, among
them Churchill, Eisenhower, Patton and Montgomery.
Playing the few holes that run along the bluffs overlooking
the beaches you can appreciate the advantage defenders
had over their adversaries below. The signature hole is the
dogleg par-four 6th, where you can still see remnants of
concrete bunkers and gun emplacements which made life
hell for the invading army. Fortunately, today, the only danger
is negotiating the sizable bunkers on both sides of the
fairway as we tee off. From the green perched on a cliff top,
there are spectacular views to the historic remains of
Mulberry Harbour and across the Channel.

Further afield, on Normandy’s west coast, is the superb
Harry Colt links of Golf de Granville, regarded as one of the
best in France. Nestling among the dunes by the sea, this is
an authentic links with a rugged, natural character and
where little has changed since 1912. The mild climate
ensures excellent playing conditions with good greens and
dry fairways your to be enjoyed year-round on this traditional
Scottish-style course. The course offers up a wonderful
mix of holes, teasing one-shotters and some fearsome
long holes into the prevailing wind. A number of holes are
played to raised green and plateaus – the typical ingredients
of classic links golf.

Situated north-east of Deauville, on the way to Paris, is
Golf Club du Champ de Bataille – our final stop on this
memorable road-trip. An impressive championship course
set in an exceptional natural and historical environment,
Champ de Bataille has been compared with Wentworth and
Woburn, and it’s easy to see why it’s ranked among France’s
top 25 courses. The layout occupies 370 acres of historic
forest and parkland and takes full advantage of natural features
such as valleys, lakes and centuries-old trees. The
17th is a particularly memorable par-three with a tight teeshot
over a deep gully.

The chateau-style
clubhouse is a fitting
backdrop to the 18th
green at Golf Barriére
de Saint-Julien

So when conversation at the 19th next turns to where to
look for the perfect short break, a boys tour or a romantic
getaway, give some thought to Normandy. It’s on your
doorstep, and the green fees will surprise you.